Electoral System Under Scrutiny

Recently five empty ballot boxes used for 2012 Presidential Elections were found idling in a school compound. The newly promoted Minister Chan has replied in parliament to brush it off as a non-issue as these were not "controlled items" anymore. That is utterly nonsense.

Maybe the Minister has not gone through any elections since he was "uncontested" during GE 2011 and he didn't know how the whole electoral process is carried out. But I am surprised no one, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE in parliament has challenged him on such nonsensical claim by pointing out the obvious contradictions to what the actual electoral process is about.

Let me run through the process in counting centers to illustrate this point:

1) After the polling is closed, all ballot boxes will be transported to the relevant counting centers. No polling agents nor counting agents are allowed to escort the boxes. This has been raised by Tan Jee Say. This should be improved and agents should be allowed to escort the ballot boxes.

2) When the ballot boxes reached the counting centers, they are separated into different precinct level for counting. A typical counting center will have six precincts, meaning, six separated tables for counting with different supervisors and counting agents.

3) The number of total ballots for each precincts was not announced before counting. This should be improved because the Election Department should have such data since it has been computerized. This is the make sure that the number of votes cast should equal to the number of votes counted.

4) After counting, they will submit the vote counts for the main supervisor to tally. There after, they will announce the vote tally.

5) If there is no objections, the Election officials will put every single thing, including counting documents and ballots BACK into the SAME BALLOT BOXES and sealed them up. This is done because it would be easy for future checking if there is any electoral dispute on the results. These boxes will then be sent to be stored at High Court Vault.

6) There is no other carriers used in the whole process. Thus, logically there SHOULD NOT BE EXTRA BALLOT BOXES lying around if this stringent process is followed thoroughly.

Thus, unless Minister Chan can show us that the whole counting process has been changed, there is absolutely no reason to believe that these boxes are discarded instead of "extras".

P.S. Add-on:
I am not saying anybody is lying because the electoral process has been changed over time. eg. Last time we used to have metal boxes with locks instead of paper boxes.

But any changes made to the whole process must not compromise the integrity or the perception of the integrity of the electoral process.

The reason to preserve ALL critical material used in the electoral process because if there is any dispute after the elections, investigation will have to be made and even boxes could be evidence or clue to what actually happened.

Thus, if there are more than one box in a precinct, all boxes must be preserved and kept until it is sure that no contest or dispute on the results warrant any recount or investigation, then these boxes will be sent to incinerators together.

This concept is about keeping the evidence of the first scene in any criminal investigation.

What the Minister has said is totally illogical because it would mean that critical evidence like the boxes would be "declassified" and throw away even before there is certainty that no investigation or dispute raised. That is absurd.


It is only logical to consider these boxes as controlled items even after vote count because it could create unnecessary doubts on the electoral process if there are boxes lying around that would give rise to suspicion of frauds. 

The Electoral Process must not only be done properly but it must also be SEEN to be done properly. Thus, all processes must be taken with great care. The addition suggestions I have made here must be considered seriously:

A) Election or Polling agents from both sides must be allowed to escort the transportation of ballot boxes.

B) Before the counting starts, counting agents and observers must be told about the ballot cast in the respective precincts. Total vote cast for all precincts must be declared as well. This could be done with the help of modern technology. This is to make sure that the possibilities of frauds will be minimized. 

This is a serious matter as it has great impact on the perception of the whole electoral process and the legitimacy of the people being elected in every elections. This is especially important when the last Presidential Elections was so closely fought and the vote difference between the elected candidate (Tony Tan) and the first runner up (Tan Cheng Bock) was just a few thousand votes.

An independent Parliamentary Inquiry Committee consisting of both ruling and opposition party MPs  should be set up and called to investigate about the matter instead of relying solely on statement made by the PMO which was the department in charge of the Election Department. A separation of power should be constructed to exercise true checks and balances of such important matter that concern the integrity of our electoral system.

Goh Meng Seng

P.S. Some said that the counted ballots should be contained in new boxes instead of old. I disagree. This is because if there is a any dispute later on, investigation will be made and all details of the electoral process will be scrutinized. Old boxes contain such details and it should be preserved.